While I was researching some things yesterday for the post on the support the “Always Our Children” program has received from Bishop Farrell, I found a video in which a protestant “minister” at Focus on the Family, of all things, argued that people should not make too big a deal out of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, as they are just one of many sins that people fall into. Since we are all sinners, and virtually everyone mortally so, we should not condemn too harshly those who fall into this particular sin.

On the surface, that argument seems to make a great deal of sense. We are all sinners, and every one of us has deserved eternal death through our sins. We should have mercy and compassion on those who fall into grave sin, praying they repent and confess their sin and never commit any again. To do anything else would not be Christian, right?

But there are several problems with this approach. The sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, in the present context, are in most cases not like other sins. This is not because they are intrinsically worse in terms of the evil they involve, but they are worse because, for the first time in history since the founding of Christendom, we have individuals going around who literally define themselves according to the sin they commit. They claim they and their sin are one, that the sin is inseparable from their identity, and, even more terribly, they believe that their sin is not, and that far from realizing their need to repent of this sin and abstain from it, they embrace it as so core to their being that they utterly reject even the thought that they could possibly change even slightly.

In fact, many of the practitioners of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are so attached to their sin, they would rather see their relationships with mother and father, sister and brother, friend and cousin destroyed rather than accept even the least bit of criticism of it, or any counsel advising them to change their ways. This is a root cause for the approach the “Always Our Children” group has adopted – out of fear of losing contact with their loved one entirely, they have more or less adopted the rationalizations of the “gay” lobby whole hog. Anyone who proclaims the Truth of Jesus Christ and His Church raises such painful mental stress they must be shut up at all costs. Thus, the treatment some have received at these local group sessions.

We have not seen, to date, thank God, groups of thieves, or murderers, or adulterers, or gossips, or the pathologically envious, running around declaring their sin is such a core part of their being that God must give them a pass for their sin, because “He made them that way.” In this way the devotees of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are, for the most part, unique (there are some who do struggle with this sin, and try to overcome it, but I am speaking of those who embrace it fully, to the extent of trying to re-write Scripture and Tradition to find excuse for their sin).

This is a most dangerous trend, and there are indications that it is spreading. There presently exist “fat advocacy” groups who argue that being morbidly obese is not unhealthy, who basically reject the idea that gluttony is a form of moral degradation. But the devotees of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are much more dangerous, touching as they do on that most powerful of human drives. The arguments they put forth could easily be accepted by others attached to sins of the 6th and 9th Commandments, further destroying the tattered remains of the Christian moral order. As such, their advocacy for their sin represents a grave threat to the moral well-being of others – a further marker that this particular sin, in this particular place and time, is not simply one among many. About the only sin I can think of that has similarly tried to upend Truth in order to justify the sin, is divorce and remarriage. Those two evils have probably precipitated the present rise of “liberated sodomy” more than anything else.

It is also spreading in the sense that already millions of people have become convinced that the sin of sodomy/”lesbianism” are not sins at all, because they have accepted the false and self-serving arguments of those who have fallen into these sins. This can be witnessed in the outlook of the “Always Our Children” groups here locally, where “outreach” has transmogrified into unthinking support, and even advocacy.

None of this is to say that those who have not fallen into these sins are somehow superior to those who have. Nothing could be further from my purpose. All have sinned, and all have deserved death. St. Paul and our Blessed Lord make this clear. Thus we all have infinite need of the salvific Grace that only comes from faith in Jesus Christ and the Church He founded. This is not about standing on a statue of superiority condemning others.

What it is about, is making plain that we are dealing with a unique threat to the entire moral order and millions of individual souls. We do ourselves no favors by downplaying the unique danger of the “gay” rights lobby and self-serving, soul-crushing arguments they put forth. Of course these individuals should be approached with love – and I would argue that those who have the strength of faith and character to stand in a group of hostile people and tell them the Truth, that sodomy is wrong and always has been, that the inclination is disordered, etc ., are the ones practicing true love and true mercy. No one wins by souls falling into hell like so many snowflakes, and Our Lord could not be more clear that these sins absolutely DO send people to hell.

I’ve gone about a thousand words, so now I invite your comments. Any approach to anyone in any sin must be a fine balance between charity and truth. But we do ourselves no favors – nor those who fall into this sin as with any other – by hiding the Truth and failing to make necessary distinctions. At this point in time, the behaviors associated with the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are really unique in the history of Christendom and represent an existential threat to the remains of the Christian moral order.

I guess I would sum up saying, in order to deal with a problem, you have to first understand it. Minimizing it or pretending it is not unique is not a help, in the long run.